Killers Use Yard Sale as Alibi

After committing a bloody and senseless murder in New Hampshire eight days ago, four teens brought their victim’s jewelry to a mall’s “cash-for-gold” shop and claimed they’d bought it at a yard sale, according to yesterday’s Union Leader:

“In a case so apparently random and vicious as to have stunned the state and grabbed the attention of the nation, four teenagers — Steven Spader and Christopher Gribble of Brookline, and William Marks and Quinn Glover of Amherst — are accused of entering Kimberly Cates’ home at 4 Trow Road [in Mont Vernon, NH] around 4 a.m. last Sunday with a plan to rob and murder.

“In the early morning hours one week ago, Cates died in a flurry of machete strikes and knife slashes. Her 11-year-old daughter, Jaimie, was slashed in the throat but managed to call police, and is now recuperating at a Boston hospital.

“Almost as chilling as the attacks themselves: What followed was something at least resembling normalcy on the parts of the accused. Around noon that Sunday, Marks entered the Mobil gas station on Route 101A in his hometown, filled up gas and grabbed a pack of Newport 100s, as he had many times before….

“The clerk, who declined to give her name, said Marks came to the store about twice a week and always bought the same cigarettes. She said he entered the store alone Sunday, but she didn’t know whether anyone else was outside waiting for him. Also on Sunday, Gribble, 19, and Spader, 17, went to a Cash for Gold kiosk at the Pheasant Lane Mall in Nashua and sold rings and necklaces, according to the clerk there, who also declined to give her name: ‘They just came with smiles on their faces and said, “We got this gold at a yard sale,”‘ the clerk said last week. ‘They didn’t even look like anything had happened,’ she said. ‘I didn’t even think that they had stolen it.’

“The clerk said Gribble and Spader were at the mall with two girls. After learning the identities of the girls, the New Hampshire Union Leader contacted them, but both refused comment.

“On Monday, the day after the attacks, Marks, 18, and Glover, 17, attended class at Souhegan High School in their hometown.

“But that’s when any sense of normalcy began to erode.

“According to Christa Dacus of Amherst, whose daughter had been a good friend of Glover’s, Glover was seen crying in school, and police were able to home in on him and his friends after Marks told a fellow student about the murder. That student called police, Dacus said.

“Spader and Gribble each were charged with first-degree murder, attempted murder and conspiracy to commit first-degree murder; Marks and Glover charged with burglary, conspiracy to commit burglary and armed robbery.”